It started out promisingly enough. Plans were made for Anne and I to head up to Maine to visit my family (hers still being inconveniently located in Ohio), teinedreugan and lilairen agreed to take care of Tai while we were away, the weather looked pretty good for driving, and frozencapybara and I were generally in a good mood.

Then my back went out.

I can't even tell you how I did it. I had just hauled a small load of stuff to my car -- but it was nothing big, just a couple of small rolling suitcases, no heavy lifting -- and it was on the way back to the apartment door, mid-stride, that my tailbone said "um, no" and I kind of crumpled into a heap. This was followed by a couple of minutes of uncomfortable experimentation, as I tried to some means of getting back inside that didn't involve complex operations like "standing up" or "moving my back in any measurable manner".

We did make it up to Maine, though needless to say I didn't drive. The (extended) family dinner on turkey day itself was enjoyable, at least, even if I was barely ambulatory for it. The low point of the weekend was the emergency room trip (which didn't accomplish much, but did reassure me that I hadn't somehow broken anything), followed by the "ah, screw it" decision to just come back to Massachusetts a day early. Saturday was a bit better (thank heavens for the heating pad), and I rejoined the rest of my species by walking upright on Sunday. My back still isn't right, but it's (slowly, glacially) getting there.

But, hey, at least all this eliminated any possibility of a Black Friday shopping trip.

You too? Mine didn't go out quite as obviously as that, but it is definitely decided to throw a hissy fit and make all standard operating procedures painful and slow. I really should think about getting a heating pad.